Unattended Upgrades on an Anubiz Offshore VPS
An unpatched VPS is the most common way servers get owned. unattended-upgrades is the right answer on Anubiz Ubuntu 24.04 - the cloud image installs it but leaves it half-configured. This guide tunes it to apply security updates daily, reboot in a planned window only when needed, and notify you when something needs hands-on attention. No more weekend rooting from a CVE you missed.
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Step 1: Confirm Defaults
The cloud image installs unattended-upgrades but does not pull in update-notifier-common. apt install unattended-upgrades update-notifier-common. dpkg-reconfigure -plow unattended-upgrades enables the daily cron.
Step 2: Origins
Default origins pattern in /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/50unattended-upgrades includes Ubuntu security only. Leave it. Do NOT add updates-main unless you also test in a snapshot first.
Step 3: Auto Reboot
Set Unattended-Upgrade::Automatic-Reboot "true"; and Unattended-Upgrade::Automatic-Reboot-Time "03:30";. Server timezone matters - use UTC on the VPS for predictable behavior across countries.
Step 4: Email Alerts
Unattended-Upgrade::Mail "alerts@example.com"; with OnlyOnError "false"; sends a summary mail. Needs working sendmail or postfix relay.
Step 5: Verify
unattended-upgrade --dry-run --debug shows what would be applied. After 24h check /var/log/unattended-upgrades/unattended-upgrades.log.
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